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Monday, May 14, 2012

Book Review of Wild Fermentation by Sandor Katz

Hi, and a little wine readers! I’m Aundra and I blog at Fit for Life. Mostly, I blog about
suburban homesteading, fitness, local food, and daily adventures, but today I’m
presenting a review for one of my new favorite books!

The book is Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and
Craft of Live-Culture Foods by Sandor Katz.
I had the opportunity to meet Sandor Katz during his visit to Chestertown this
spring for the Locavore
Lit Fest.

Let me start by stating that I knew very little about fermentation
before opening this book. In preparation for Sandor’s visit to Chestertown, I
purchased the book last fall and let it sit on my bedside table until a week
before the event (typical).

I’m so sorry that I didn’t dive into it sooner! Beginning with a foreword by Sally
Fallon Morell, author of Nourishing Traditions, and well-known “real foods” advocate, Wild Fermentation sets the tone early as an easy-to-read,
easy-to-digest book complete with recipe starters and lengthy personal
experiences. I couldn’t put it down.

Why ferment? Fermentation helps preserve foods, makes food
more digestible, more nutritious, and can even help prevent diseases.

The process of fermenting foods is relatively easy, too. The
book has been organized into different categories: vegetables, beans, dairy, breads, beverages, wines, beers,
and vinegars. While recipes are
included in each section, there’s even more value in Sandor’s personal
commentary and experience with each fermented food that surrounds the recipes.

Sandor writes about the cultural context of fermented foods,
starting with how they’ve been an integral part of human diets for many, many
thousands of years. These foods—some recognizable ones are sauerkraut, miso,
tempeh, sourdough bread, cheeses—are beginning to make a comeback in Western
diets.

After reading this book, hearing Sandor speak at the
College, and watching his demonstration on making sauerkraut, I had to give
making fermented foods a try.

I figured kraut was the best (and easiest) fermented food to
make first.

Using the recipe starter found in the book as a guide, I
prepped 2.5 quarters of sauerkraut, adding shredded local cabbage, white
Japanese turnips, and shredded carrots into the mix.

Using sea salt and my hands to mix, I encouraged a brine to
form from just the water contained within the vegetables. I packed the jars,
let the brine flood the tops of the jars, and sealed them. I’m so eager for the
first taste test in a couple of days.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you’ll come check out Fit for Life to see how the kraut
taste test goes (and for more fermented food adventures. Well, and other
adventures, too).

That's fantastic! You can ferment just about any kind of vegetable, but I've only tried cabbage, turnips, and carrots so far. I can't wait to give cucumbers a try!

The most important thing to remember is that you really can't screw up.

Brine is also helpful. With the sauerkraut recipe, I encouraged a brine to form from the cabbage/turnips/carrot mixture by adding kosher sea salt and working the mixture with my hands, gently squeezing as I mixed. Brine helps encourage the lactobacilli to form (the helpful bacteria that aid digestion).

Give it a try! Like I said, you really can't screw it up. I'll offer a step-by-step sauerkraut-making tutorial on my blog soon!